Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-09-15
BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.

cisco Post.
BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.
| A Study Which Develops . Love for Gar
deninE and Horticulture.
What would do more for gardening
and horticulture. and be more bene-
fetal to the pupils. than to make bot
any one of the founda ton studies in
our common schools, instead of fin
ishng study taken up by very few? A
knowledge of botany is of the highest
Importance to every one whose life and
living are in the country. The farmer
has great need Of botany; so has the
fruit culturist and the flower or vege.
table gardener. Analytical botany is
well, but even more important are
structural and physiological botany.
Yet our boys and girls are kept igno-
rant of each of these branches until
the school life is about to close-until
the school life of the majority has
closed. This is not right. Botany
can be taken up before geography. 1t
is especially well adapted to very young
pupils; for it is properly an object
study and interests children much
more readily than mathematics, gram
mar or geography. 1t is an absorbing.
intensely-interesting study, and when
once is is fairly begun the pupil is 10th
to give it up.
believe the girls would receive the
more benefit from making botany one
of the earliest studies of the schools.
1t is true that the fate of many OF
them is to become farmers wives; but
a woman is better fitted to be such a
''helpmeet" by the acquisition of a
thorough knowledge of botany. The
farmer, naturally enough, takes more
interest in farm animals and feeding
problems. Upon these topics he is best
informed. Hence his wife's knowl.
edge should supplement his. The larg-
est sum of knowledge is made by the
coalescence of two quantities of di-
verse nature, and, given the same
amount of knowledge in each case, that
couple is best equipped of which the
wife knows most of those subjects on
which the husband is the least in
formed
We no longer need foreigners to tell
us that our women are weakly and col
orless, and that this comes of lack of
outdoor exercise. When the wife or
daughter gets a little leisure, instead
of spending it out of doors in the en-
livening sunshine and invi gorating air,
she sits down to do some fancy work.
injuring her lungs by bending over it,
injuring her eyes by close attention to
the colOred woods. and rises from her
"play" more tired than when she be-
gan it. There is enough evidence to
prove that if she had been taught bot
any in her youth she would have be-
come SO interested in it that she would
spend her leisure in prosecuting botan-
ical studies. or in gardening or fruit
culture; for it can not be disputed sue
cessfully that knowledge of plants
always adds great zest to their cultiva-
ton. Botany for girls means largely
health for women, and. more, it means
escape from that narrowing view Of
life. bounded finally by household du-
ties. of which SO many women are the
victims, or, what is yet worse, servi-
tude to dress and gossip; for from the
physiology of plants the transition to
the physiology of ANIMALS is almost in
evitable; from the chemistry of plants
the chemistry of other things is short,
an easy step; from the distribution of
plants to physical geography. geology.
zoology. is natural progression. Who
can doubt the Importance of study of
botany to girls? Botany for girls is
more flowers and fruits about the
home, more health for mother and chill
dren, more knowledge and happiness
for every member of the family
John N. Stdhl, tn american Garden.